by Lia Lee
“Did you not see the tantrum he threw last night?” Dimitri asked with amusement. “Yuri actually asked him to leave Dyadya’s.”
“Very satisfying,” Anatoli agreed. “But where are we going with this strategy?”
Dimitri sometimes marveled that his own brother could be so short sighted. “The idea was to punish Rustikov for making our sister suffer and for disrespecting her, right?”
“Yeah.”
“So don’t you think that making him look like an impotent fool is punishment?”
“Perhaps.” Anatoli grimaced. “I was thinking more along the lines of physical punishment.”
“Because you’re a very literal person.” Dimitri shook his head. “You can’t make the man into a martyr. He’ll just blame us and make himself feel like a victim. He needs to experience the same humiliation he dished out to Katya. That will make an impact. Remember that not everyone in the world is like you.”
Anatoli snorted. “I still want to kill him.”
“What good would it do?” Dimitri wondered out loud. “Would it teach him a lesson? Would it make him reconsider what he did to Katya? No. He would just feel vindicated.”
“I think you’re full of shit.” Anatoli pointed angrily at the main house. “You’ve got Rustikov’s daughter in there and you’re fucking her instead of using her to teach him a lesson.”
Dimitri gazed at Anatoli and shook his head. “Tell me. Do you think the man will appreciate knowing that I’ve had his daughter in my bed? Do you think that will make him happy? Or will it make him feel impotent and powerless?”
A slow smile spread over Anatoli’s face. “So when do you intend to rub his face in it?”
“Soon.”
“Does the girl know you’re just using her?”
A twinge of doubt hit Dimitri somewhere in the vicinity of his heart. “No. She doesn’t.”
TONI WATCHED FROM the window as Dimitri and his brother strode across the rolling green lawn. They’d obviously been out there browbeating Katya once again. She’d asked him about a dozen times to let her talk to his sister, but Dimitri was convinced that she would be more willing to talk to her brothers than to a stranger. Dimitri didn’t understand why Toni believed that Katya would be more willing to talk to a woman. But of course, that was because he was a man. So today Toni was going to sneak out of the house and go talk to Katya on her own.
She waited until the men disappeared beneath the back stairs. Toni had yet to figure out what was down in the basement, but she had a feeling that was why she could never find any evidence of Dimitri’s business in the house.
When the coast was clear, Toni quickly left her bedroom and trotted down the back steps. She emerged from the back door of the house already at a dead run. She sprinted for the trees, not stopping until she was safely hidden behind the leafy green wall of vegetation. Finally she paused. Bending at the waist, she breathed deeply until she no longer felt as if she were going to pass out. Then she jogged the rest of the way to Katya’s front door.
She knocked, banging on the door until she heard footsteps on the other side.
The door swung open. “I told you, I’m not going to…” Katya paused, looking surprised. “Oh. It’s you.”
“Yes. Me.” Toni nodded. “You and I are going to talk and you’re going to give me some answers. I’m not one of your brothers. I’m not going to be persuaded that you’re too tired or emotionally vulnerable to tell me what I want to know.”
“Okay.” Katya crossed her arms over her chest and looked belligerent. “You can ask whatever you want, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to answer.”
“No?” Toni cocked her head to the side, wondering if she was barking up the wrong tree completely. “You got pregnant for a reason. You can’t tell me you’re so ignorant that you don’t know about birth control. You were sleeping with a married man. That means the baby you’re carrying had a purpose. Maybe for my father. I don’t know. But most certainly for you.”
There was a shadow of fear lurking in Katya’s dark gaze now. Toni had certainly hit a nerve. Katya gave a curt nod. “So ask.”
“Did my father ever mention anything about my mother to you?” Toni asked carefully. “Did he say what his intentions were, or why he was being unfaithful to her?”
“If you think I was the only one he cheated with, you’re horribly naive,” Katya scoffed. “That man couldn’t keep his dick in his pants if his life depended on it.”
“Yet you’re the only one who has ever been pregnant.”
“Are you sure?”
Toni licked her lips, willing to trust her instincts on this one. “Yes.”
Katya looked surprised. “Why are you so sure?”
“Because my mother was the one with the money and the connections.”
Now Katya was biting her lip. “Go talk to your uncles.”
“What?”
“Your mother’s brothers.”
“We never talked to them.” At least Toni didn’t think her mother had kept in touch with her siblings.
“According to your father, they were giving him trouble,” Katya said slowly. “That’s all I know.”
“That isn’t all you know,” Toni retorted. “But I’ll let it go for today.”
“Gee, isn’t that nice?”
“You’d better be nice if you want anything for that kid.” Toni pointed at the baby bump around Katya’s middle. “You and I both know that you had a purpose for that baby. And whether either of us like it or not, that kid you’re carrying is my half sibling.”
“Boy,” Katya whispered. “It’s a boy.”
“Holy shit.” Toni realized that her father had finally gotten exactly what he wanted, although he seemed determined not to claim it. What was going on?
* * *
Toni was missing. Dimitri had searched the entire house with no luck. Her bedroom was deserted. There was nobody in the kitchen, which was where she usually hung out. And Mrs. Urevich hadn’t seen her today. He was just about to lose his damn mind when he got a call from Anatoli.
“What?” Dimitri answered sharply.
“One of the guards let her out of the gate about half an hour ago,” Anatoli said darkly. “He didn’t realize she didn’t have your permission. Since you treat her like a freaking guest instead of a prisoner, Anton didn’t realize that she was supposed to stay on the grounds.”
“Did she happen to mention where she was going?” Dimitri felt his gut tighten with anxiety. All he could think about was the possibility of Toni challenging her father and getting herself seriously hurt. Boris was bound to be in a seriously bad mood by now about his daughter’s disappearance.
“There was nothing mentioned about a destination. She simply told Anton that she had to meet with some family.”
“Shit.”
Anatoli snorted. “You should have killed her when you had the chance.”
“No.” Dimitri took a deep breath and tried to calm himself. “I’m not going to worry about it for now. Chances are she’ll wind up in some trouble and call us for help anyway.”
“You don’t have much faith in the girl’s street smarts then, do you?” Anatoli was laughing. “You don’t think the princess can survive without her entourage?”
“I don’t think she’s ever had to.” Dimitri contented himself with that. “She’ll be back. Just tell Anton to let me know immediately when she comes straggling up.”
“Will do.”
Dimitri hung up and wondered if he was making a huge mistake. Surely Toni wouldn’t stray far. Even the night he’d met her she had been at a bar less than four blocks from her father’s home. Where was a piece of fluff like her going to go all on her own?
* * *
Toni had only a vague recollection of where she might find her uncles. She’d walked to the bus stop from Dimitri’s home and then from there she’d wound up at the train station. She knew her uncles owned a restaurant called The Samovar on the polar opposite side of the city from her
father and Dimitri’s territory. Now she stood outside a busy, imposing restaurant trying to convince the person at the door that she should be allowed to see the boss.
“Nikolai Kabalevsky is my uncle. I swear,” Toni insisted. “Please just tell him that Toni Rustikov is here to see him. Please?”
“Mr. Kabalevsky had no family.” The snooty girl at the hostess stand looked down her nose at Toni. “He’s a very busy man.”
“And you’re going to be a very sorry bitch when he fires your skanky ass for not telling him that the daughter of his dead sister is here to see him,” Toni fired back. “I’m not kidding.”
The woman’s nametag read Veronika. Toni couldn’t stand girls who stuck a “K” somewhere in their name just to make it sound Russian. Chances were, the chick didn’t know anything about their culture at all. She just worked in a freaking restaurant.
“Go along home now.” Veronika shooed Toni away like a stray dog.
Toni glared at the woman and spoke in rapid, angry Russian. “Tell me, you insufferable snob, do you even know who it is you’re working for? Or do you just come in to work every single day and pretend that you understand what’s going on even though the only Russian you know is from spending hours fantasizing that you were Anastasia Romanov, or Anna Karenina? It’s pathetic! And if you don’t go get my uncle right now, I’m going to have you thrown out on your ass!”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa now.” A male voice entered the fray from the shadows to the right of the restaurant’s foyer. “Is that my little Toni I hear?”
“Uncle Nikolai! Oh thank God!” Toni said with relief. “They told me you didn’t have any relatives and that I should leave.”
“Is that right.” Nikolai turned and gave the hostess a gimlet stare.
Veronika looked chagrined. “I didn’t think. That is to say… I’ve been told that you don’t like to be bothered.”
“Toni is the daughter of my dead sister. She is hardly a bother.” Nikolai pointed at the door. “Get out and don’t come back. You do not get to presume whom I may or may not want to see. You overstep yourself in the worst way possible. And my niece is right. You’re not Russian. Stop trying to pretend that you are.”
“But,” the girl stammered. “I need this job.”
“Then you shouldn’t have made such a grave mistake.” Nikolai waved her off. “Begone.” He turned and led Toni back into the shadowy alcove, which hid a doorway.
“Does she really need this job?” Toni worried. “I didn’t mean to get her fired, Uncle Nikolai.”
“My little mouse, this is not her first offense, believe me. She’s had it coming for a long time.” Nikolai ushered her into an office. “Now, let’s have a little chat. I cannot imagine what has brought you all this way!”
Chapter Eight
“Tell me what happened to my mother,” Toni said quietly.
The sounds of the restaurant on the other side of the brick wall were barely audible inside the dim, comfy office. The furnishings were old and worn. Toni spotted several pictures of her uncles and her mother when they were young, and a few of the grandparents she’d never known. The whole place gave off a vibe of security. It felt as if anything said within this space would be protected. There was no danger here, and no judgment. There was only love and acceptance. Toni could see why her mother would have come here whenever she had a problem that needed working through.
Nikolai leaned back in his leather executive chair and gave her a sideways glance. “Your mother committed suicide, my sweet. You saw the report I’m sure.”
“I don’t want to hear the bullshit story that my father told the authorities. I don’t believe my mother killed herself,” Toni insisted. “She wouldn’t have done that. She wouldn’t have left me that way.”
“Perhaps you must ask other questions then,” Nikolai suggested. “This way you can understand.”
“What questions?”
“Ask yourself why your father married your mother when there was no love lost between the two.”
Toni gazed at her uncle. He looked much like her mother, much like her. They all had black curly hair and bright blue eyes. Her mother had been a renowned beauty. They had solid connections deep within the organization. Her uncles shared territory with their cousins, but none of the Kabalevskys were greedy.
“My family has always worked together,” Nikolai told her slowly. “Your father was just beginning back then. He had a position within the organization, and he’d gained reputation as an enforcer, and a bit of a ladies’ man.”
“Even back then,” Toni murmured sadly. “I don’t think much has changed for him.”
Nikolai laughed. “He would like to think it has not, but he is not the young man he once was.”
“He was angry with my mother when she didn’t have a son,” Toni remembered. “Why?”
Nikolai spread his hands. “Our families are patriarchal. We choose our heirs based on bloodline and gender, but Kabalevskys do things differently.”
“How?” Toni was beginning to think she could guess.
“Ah,” Nikolai said with a touch of irony. “Our trusts and holdings are set up so that the gender of the person who inherits is not in question. It is the relationship that matters.”
“So that’s why I inherited my mother’s fortune.” Toni would have rather had her mother back, but even she had to admit that having the money had made independence from her father possible.
“Yes.” Nikolai nodded. “Your mother was unable to have more children. Did you know that?”
Shock left Toni’s fingers and toes tingling with awareness. How had she not known that basic fact about her own mother? “No, I didn’t.”
“She was very concerned about protecting your inheritance,” Nikolai said gravely. “She came to see us several times in the last few months of her life to make certain that everything she had set aside for you was still safe.”
Toni frowned, trying to think about what this meant. “You mean my father didn’t have access to those funds? That would have driven him crazy to know there was a whole pile of cash and assets he couldn’t touch.”
“It did, quite regularly,” Nikolai said with a wry smile. “You might say it’s what kept him with your mother. He was determined to get control of her fortune.”
“What would have happened if he’d had a son with another woman?” Toni wondered. “Would the new baby inherit?”
“Not if he wasn’t a Kabalevsky,” Nikolai retorted. “Why?”
“Because my father sired a child off his last mistress.” Toni couldn’t understand it. Was she wrong? Was the entire pregnancy an accident? It made no sense. Katya didn’t act as though it was a mistake. The only thing that had gone amiss was her father suddenly changing his mind about the whole thing.
“He what?” Nikolai sat forward in his chair, his expression stormy. “The disrespect!”
“Oh, because it’s so much worse to have a kid than just to cheat without any awkward byproducts to leave around as proof?”
Now Nikolai looked chagrined. “Okay, so maybe I can see where you’re coming from on that, but still. Why would he be so careless?”
“That’s the thing,” Toni insisted. “I don’t think it was a mistake. I think it was intentional. I just don’t know what his angle was—or maybe is. I just don’t know!”
There was a soft knock at the door. Nikolai frowned. He got up from his desk and went to answer. There was a hushed conversation that Toni couldn’t hear. Then her uncle chuckled and turned back around to look at Toni.
“There is a man here looking for you Toni Rustikov.” The twinkle in Nikolai’s eyes did not match his somber tone of voice. “He says his name is Dimitri Alkaev. Did you leave some things out perhaps?”
“Maybe.” Toni blushed. “I sort of ran away from home, allowed myself to be kidnapped by Dimitri and his brother Anatoli, and then I’ve been hiding out at their house ever since.”
“Until today?”
“Yes.” She shrugged.
“I was a willing prisoner. If they’re not going to take care to make me stay put, I feel like I should have the right to pursue my own agenda when I want.”
“Seems fair,” Nikolai agreed.
“You think this is funny!” Toni accused.
Her uncle sighed. “I know Dimitri. That’s what makes it funny.” Nikolai nodded to the enforcer who’d brought him the message. “You may show Dimitri into my office.”
DIMITRI STRODE INTO Nikolai’s office without any notion of what to expect from the encounter. Had the man discovered that Dimitri had kidnapped his niece? Was his pissed? And more importantly, would he retaliate. Dimitri Alkaev considered himself to be the sort of man people thought twice before messing with. But one did not “mess with” a Kabalevsky without getting the entire family involved.
“Hello, Dimitri.” Nikolai was sitting in his chair. He didn’t even bother to get up when Dimitri entered. “I assume you’re here to talk about my niece, Antonina?”
“Is she here?” Dimitri tried to keep his tone level, but he had been getting increasingly worried about Toni’s safety over the last hour or so. “She didn’t tell anyone where she was going.”
“My niece is an interesting woman, Dimitri Alkaev,” Nikolai drawled. “People often think that she is a bit of a delicate flower.”
“I’m not sure I would agree with the delicate portion of that statement,” Dimitri commented. “So far I’ve found her to be shockingly resilient.”
“She is,” Nikolai said, his voice flat. “Which is why I know that if she were in any real trouble, she would come here and we would handle it. Together.”
“But?”
“But I find I don’t appreciate the notion that my niece was kidnapped by the Alkaevs.” Nikolai stood up. He put his hands flat on his desk and leaned forward. His manner was intimidating, though Dimitri didn’t feel the need to back down. After all, he hadn’t done anything wrong. Nikolai wasn’t done. He peered at Dimitri with those uncanny blue eyes that looked so much like Toni’s. “Tell me, Mr. Alkaev. What are your intentions toward my niece?”
Dimitri didn’t answer right away. First of all, he refused to be intimidated. Dimitri wasn’t some green boy. He ran territory in his own right. He had a place on the mafiya council. Other men, older men, listened to his opinions and respected his authority. Why should Dimitri cower before Nikolai Kabalevsky? However, there was no reason to start a war with Toni’s uncle. Not when the man could prove a valuable ally.